BACK FROM EXILE, POLAND'S PISKORSKI HAS A PLAN AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 WARSAW 000427

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/20/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL PL
SUBJECT: BACK FROM EXILE, POLAND'S PISKORSKI HAS A PLAN AND
A POCKETBOOK

Classified By: Political Counselor Daniel Sainz for reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Three years after being dismissed by the
center-right Civic Platform's (PO) governing council for
responding ambiguously to conflict of interest allegations,
now-independent MEP and former mayor of Warsaw Pawel
Piskorski has re-surfaced in Poland and taken the reins of
the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Democratyczne). The SD is
a one-time satellite of the Workers Party that still owns
valuable Communist-era properties. Piskorski, intent on
settling old scores with PM Tusk and others in PO, aims to
build a new centrist, liberal party that will gradually chip
away at PO's liberal core. Piskorski cooperates with the
small grouping of center-left parties assembled by Dariusz
Rosati, but makes a strong case that he has the charisma and
ambition that those parties lack. Piskorski is convinced
that Tusk's likely election as president in 2010 will be the
beginning of the end for PO, and is positioning SD to fill
the void. END SUMMARY.

PISKORSKI'S GRUDGE AGAINST PM TUSK


2. (U) A former Warsaw mayor and current independent MEP who
helped Donald Tusk build the center-right Civic Platform (PO)
in 2001, Pawel Piskorski was elected in February as chair of
the older and larger of Poland's two Democratic Parties.
Piskorski's 70-year-old Stronnictwo Democraticzne (SD),a
one-time satellite of the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR),
cooperates and competes with a smaller democratic party,
Partia Demokratyczne (PD),founded in 2005 by former members
of the Solidarity-affiliated Freedom Union (Unia Wolnosci,
UW). Piskorski has publicly announced plans to transform SD
-- which still maintains much of its communist-era
infrastructure and owns 16 pieces of property in Poland's
larger cities -- into a centrist, liberal party that will
compete head-to-head with PO. Piskorski reportedly still
holds a grudge against PO's leader, PM Donald Tusk, who
forced Piskorski to leave the party in 2006 in the wake of
conflict of interest allegations.


3. (C) NB: Corruption and conflict of interest allegations
have dogged Piskorski since his time as mayor of Warsaw.
However, successive investigations, including one launched by
his successor as mayor, Lech Kaczynski, have uncovered no
evidence of wrongdoing. As mayor, Piskorski was viewed as an
"expediter" who circumvented bureaucratic regulations to move
construction and infrastructure projects forward.

PM TUSK ABANDONING PO'S LIBERAL CORE


4. (C) In a recent meeting with the Embassy, Piskorski argued
that PO had abandoned its liberal origins tracing back to the
UW and liberal elements of Solidarity (AWS). According to
Piskorski, Tusk started to move PO to the right in 2005,
following his defeat in that year's presidential elections
and PO's second-place finish to Law and Justice (PiS) in
parliamentary elections. Later, Tusk again shifted PO away
from liberal values -- this time, toward a "big-tent" party
with the "values-oriented" Marian Krzaklewski and the
left-leaning Danuta Huebner at the top of PO's European
Parliament electoral lists. Piskorski predicted Tusk's
strategy would succeed through 2010 presidential elections,
but would ultimately tear PO apart. If Tusk runs for the
presidency and wins, he will likely pass the government reins
to Deputy PM Grzegorz Schetyna, a capable administrator and
hatchet man who lacks the charisma needed to keep the party
united.


5. (C) Piskorski argued that PO is alienating its core
constituency -- pro-business liberals -- by moving too far,
too quickly to the right and by failing to deliver on
promised economic reforms. Many within PO consider Tusk's
recent push for MPs to divest or place stock holdings in a
blind trust as an attack on business intended to curry favor
with PiS-minded voters. Poland's personality-driven politics
and a tendency to look for the "next big thing" in politics,
make SD -- and the charismatic Piskorski -- a natural choice
for PO's disaffected core. Piskorski is expected to run
former Finance Minister (1992) and Foreign Minister
(1993-1995) Andrzej Olechowski as SD's candidate for
president in 2010; Olechowski came in third in the first
round of the 2000 presidential elections. Tusk is the
undeclared frontrunner; if he is elected president in 2010
and does not call snap parliamentary elections, PO's
"inevitable decline" under Schetyna will create an opening
for SD.

CENTER-LEFT SPLINTER PARTIES "LACK VISION"


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6. (C) SD plans to target PO liberals, Piskorski said, as
part of a long-term effort to build slowly a modern, liberal
party. Because SD currently derives rental revenue from some
of its real estate holdings -- political parties are
prohibited from doing so under Polish law -- the party is not
eligible to run in this year's European Parliament elections.
However, in the future,he expressed willingness to work with
PD and other small center-left parties in the "Alliance for
the Future" political grouping that is currently contesting
the Euro elections, but will insist that any cooperation take
place under SD's banner.


7. (C) Piskorski told us he cooperates closely with Alliance
leader Dariusz Rosati, but faulted Rosati and PD for lacking
the "vision" to reshape Polish politics. "They aspire to
cross the five percent threshhold (for parliamentary
representation),nothing more." NB: Indeed, in a recent
meeting, PD vice chair Radoslaw Popiela expressed cautious
optimism that the Alliance would surpass the threshhold, and
said the PD hoped for closer post-election cooperation with
Piskorski.) Piskorski's SD has one overwhelming advantage
over the increasing number of small political groupings that
aspire to break PO and PiS's hold on Polish politics -- real
estate properties, some of which will be sold to finance the
party's 2010 presidential and 2011 parliamentary campaigns.

COMMENT


8. (C) Piskorski is charismatic, engaging, and driven. He
has repeatedly proved himself a masterful administrator and
strategist. As mayor of Warsaw in 1999-2002, Piskorski got
things done at City Hall, though his shortcuts prompted
allegations of conflict of interest and nepotism. Whether or
not SD succeeds in capturing the imagination of Polish
liberals, Piskorski clearly intends to become a force again
in Polish politics, and is aiming squarely at Tusk.

ASHE